Mutineers (album)

Mutineers is the tenth studio album by English singer-songwriter David Gray, released on 17 June 2014 on IHT Records, with "Back in the World" as its first single. It was Gray's fifth consecutive US Top 20 album.^[2] A decade after its release, Gray said that he is "super proud" of what was "a purposeful first step into the current creative zone, both sonically and thematically".^[3]

Mutineers
Studio album by David Gray
Released	17 June 2014
Recorded	November 2013–March 2014
Studio	The Church Studios
Genre	Folk rock
Length	48:22
Label	Good Soldier Songs
Producer	Andy Barlow
David Gray chronology
Foundling (2010) Mutineers (2014) Gold in a Brass Age (2019)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	72/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating

Background

In the years leading up to the recording of the album, Gray had become exhausted and disillusioned. "Coming out of the noughties, I just felt beat up, physically and mentally", he told critic Tony Clayton-Lea. "And bored".^[4] Gray recounted that he "needed someone else in the studio to help me find the keys to the city; someone who would take me to a place that I hadn't heard before. And that person was Andy Barlow", a producer and musician. He described the collaboration as "a beautiful agony". The pair established a "stringent recording schedule", which unlocked a "creative spontaneity" that Gray found "priceless", and which ultimately "rehumanised" him.^[4]

Release

On 1 April 2014, the video for "Gulls" premiered on both the Myles O'Reilly website and Gray's official YouTube channel, with O'Reilly being the director.^[5][6] On 10 April, "Back in the World" was uploaded onto Gray's official YouTube channel.^[7] A day later, the song was played by radio presenter Chris Evans on BBC Radio 2 for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.^[8]

Critical reception

Tony Clayton-Lea found that the album saw Gray "reconnect with a fervour" that had been absent since the artist had found massive commercial success with White Ladder.^[4] Writing in The Irish Times, the critic said that it was "yet another departure point" for the artist. The Guardian noted "a timeworn quality that's charismatic", in an album where "[optimism] is the overriding theme".^[9] It was "the sound of a man gently recuperating from a decade of being defined by his multimillion-selling 1998 album, White Ladder". PopMatters saw it as an overdue sequel, "the kind of follow-up to 1998's smash White Ladder for which longtime fans have been waiting some 16 years", and "the most comfortable Gray has sounded in years".^[10]

Track listing

All tracks are written by David Gray except where noted.

Mutineers track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Back in the World"	Gray, Andy Barlow	3:57
2.	"As the Crow Flies"	Gray, Barlow	4:13
3.	"Mutineers"		5:01
4.	"Beautiful Agony"	Gray, Barlow	4:04
5.	"Last Summer"		4:13
6.	"Snow in Vegas"		4:21
7.	"Cake and Eat It"		2:33
8.	"Birds of the High Arctic"	Gray, Barlow	6:24
9.	"The Incredible"	Gray, Robbie Malone	3:23
10.	"Girl Like You"		5:18
11.	"Gulls"		4:55
Total length:			48:22

Bonus track version

No.	Title	Length
12.	"Nearly Midnight"	3:51
Total length:		52:13

Personnel

• David Gray – vocals, pianos, guitars, keyboards, harp, harmonica, Juno synthesizer
• Rob Malone – bass, acoustic, electric and nylon string guitars, e-bow, high strung guitar
• Keith Prior – drums, percussion
• Caroline Dale – cello
• Andy Barlow – programming

Charts

Chart performance for Mutineers

Chart (2014)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[11]	22
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[12]	67
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[13]	57
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[14]	31
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[15]	53
Irish Albums (IRMA)[16]	7
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[17]	36
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[18]	27
UK Albums (OCC)[19]	10
US Billboard 200[20]	15